Ece Temelkuran and Diana Darke
Beauty and Pain in Pakistan with Nadeem Aslam and Maya Jaggi 
The Empire Writes Back event
Christina Lamb opens the Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival
Beirut after Dusk event with Zeina Hashem Beck, Nasri Atallah, Saleem Haddad and Zahra Hankir
Suki Kim, photo credit Ed Kashi
The 2017 Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival took place from 9 – 26 May, with pre-events taking place in April and post-events in June. We were thrilled to support for the fourth year the only UK Festival dedicated to pan-Asian writing. This year’s festival travels from Syria to the Philippines, from China to Iran, examining the human psyche, long-forgotten pasts, tackling topical subjects from migration to issues of identity. Find a selection of media coverage below:
‘The Women Who Blow on Knots tells the story of a group of women travelling through the Middle East during 2011’s Arab Spring.’
Read the full post here.
‘The Golden Legend is an intriguing and important read. In a world that is becoming evermore disjointed, it offers some semblance of hope for happiness and unity.’
Read the full article here.
‘As part of the Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival, three prominent writers of postcolonial literature, Aamer Hussein (Short Stories by Pakistani Women), Mohini Kent (Black Taj) and Radhika Swarup (Where The River Parts) address the resonating effects of partition that can be felt even today.’
Read the full article here
“I did call someone to tell them I was ok and he thought – ‘why shouldn’t you be?’” –
‘he also spoke about her time with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who defied the bullets of the Taliban, is a Nobel Prize Peace winner (2014) and who Lamb also co-authored the best-selling book, ‘I am Malala’.’
Read the full article here.
Zeina Hashem Beck, author of Louder than Hearts –
“I feel the idea of displacement is central to Louder than Hearts—displacement from the land, from home, from memory, and from one’s mother language.
Read the full article here.
Hande Eagle, Literature Programme Manager at Asia House
To us, being a pan-Asian literature festival means including as many Asian countries and histories as possible in our programme. From 13th century Persia to contemporary Pakistan, from growing up in a changing China during the Cultural Revolution to going undercover in Pyongyang, from the war in Syria to life in Beirut and the Partition of India we have a line-up of highly engaging events featuring some of the best writers of our time: to name a few Christina Lamb; Elif Shafak; Aamer Hussein; Lijia Zhang; Nadeem Aslam; Miguel Syjuco
Read the full post here.
Hande Eagle, Literature Programme Manager at Asia House – “For this year’s festival, our first and foremost pursuit is to unite against division and to seek peace, compassion, inclusion and openness through the works that we’ve chosen and the writers we’ve brought together.”
Read the full post here.
This year’s Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival brings us two talks with a Korean interest. The second of these is a discussion of North Korean issues between Suki Kim, author of Without You, There Is No Us (LKL review here) and Paul French, author of North Korea: State of Paranoia.
Read the full post here.
‘The annual Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival has kicked off with a series of pre-festival events for 2017. They include talks on Aleppo, an exploration of Chinese roots and a celebration of the life of poet Nikoloz Baratashvili.’
Read the full article here.
Phillip Kim: ‘Literature is an art form, it’s a language, it needs rhythm, it needs nuance. It’s impossible to have two completely different languages and just transcribe one to the other and yet communicate the same message.’
Read the full interview here.
Bagri Foundation,
80 Cannon Street,
London, EC4N 6EJ
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